Pope Francis endorses breastfeeding in public

Judges have asked women to stop doing it in court. Bus drivers have asked their passengers to cover up while doing it or get off the bus. A pastor called a woman a stripper for doing it in church.

In the last decade the news media has been filled with stories of people frowning upon mothers nursing their children in public.

Now, breastfeeding advocates can rejoice. Pope Francis, Time’s Person of the Year, supports breastfeeding and he doesn’t mind if you do it in public. Amen.

When the Pope was asked about world hunger last Sunday in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, he told a story about encouraging a mother to nurse her hungry, crying baby.

There are so many children that cry because they are hungry. At the Wednesday General Audience the other day there was a young mother behind one of the barriers with a baby that was just a few months old. The child was crying its eyes out as I came past. The mother was caressing it.

I said to her: “Madam, I think the child’s hungry.”

“Yes, it’s probably time…” she replied.

“Please give it something to eat!” I said.

She was shy and didn’t want to breast-feed in public, while the Pope was passing. I wish to say the same to humanity: Give people something to eat! That woman had milk to give to her child; we have enough food in the world to feed everyone.

That Pope’s anecdote was meant to make the point that there’s plenty of food in the world and nobody should go hungry but he also gave breastfeeding a huge endorsement and this has pleased mothers across the world. Some are even going to church after long absences.

News that the Pope is encouraging mothers to breastfeed their babies in public just might make me stop in my nearest Catholic church for a service or two….I’m digging this dude for his stance on homosexuality, abortion, poverty and now a mother’s right to feed her baby on demand, wherever our children demand it.

Parenting blogger Jeanne Sager shared on Cafe Mom’s The Stir:

Ahem! Did you hear that, oh prudes the world over? A celibate man whose ears are thisclose to God doesn’t have a problem with seeing a mother breastfeed her child. The most holy of holy men in the WORLD doesn’t see sex when he sees a baby at the breast! He sees only a hungry child … and a mother answering his cry.

How … sensible?

Yes, of course, the Pope is being sensible as breastfeeding is the most natural, not to mention convenient, way for a mother to feed her baby.

Many are saying the Pope’s mention of breastfeeding is yet another example of his fresher, newer, more progressive opinions but actually the church’s relationship with breastfeeding goes back to ancient times. The Pope seems to be embracing an old tradition rather than presenting something new.

Looking back to the Middle Ages, the image of the baby Jesus nursing from Mary’s breast was the most widely recognized symbol of God. David Gibson of the Religious News Press says that with the invention of the printing press came the sexualization of women’s breasts. Images of a bare-breasted Mary became taboo over time and, Gibson says, the crucifixion became the major symbol of God’s love for humanity, supplanting the breastfeeding icon. Now it looks like Pope Francis might be bringing the breastfeeding Mary back.